Barrio Azteca

The Barrio Azteca, also known as Los Aztecas, is a Mexican-American gang that was founded in 1986 in the jails of El Paso, Texas. The prison gang transformed into an international criminal organization, and it became one of the most violent gangs in the United States, having over 3,000 members in the USA and 5,000 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In 2008, the gang formed an alliance with the Juarez Cartel to fight off the rival Sinaloa Cartel, which attempted to take over the drug smuggling routes in the area (which provided 70% of the USA's cocaine). Barrio Azteca members typically have US citizenship, making them ideal cross-border killers that move back and forth across the US-Mexico border.